So What Wednesday

Linking up with Shannon at Life After "I Dew" today {her link is on my right sidebar…go check her out}

This week I'm saying SO WHAT if:

• This winter weather is terrible.  Like I want to stay inside my home and not come out until spring.
• I stop by the mailbox everyday to see Christmas cards.  The bills…not so much.
• I know the Sound of Music last week wasn't all it was cracked up to be, but I love Carrie Underwood - so even though I still like the original better, I enjoyed it.
• My dog is about ready to be sent to another room because she is chowing down on a bone that Kevin just gave her.  I HATE eating noises..smacking, chewing, chomping - disgusting.  And she evidently doesn't care.
• My husband is taking pictures of her doing this ^
• Due to the above two bullets, I just gave away the fact that I'm actually writing this So What Wednesday post on Tuesday night.  I can't get my ass out of bed in the morning to write it.
• Still no gifts wrapped.
• Our favorite ice cream place has the BEST Peppermint Oreo ice cream that's only out during the holidays.  I have been craving it since it came out this year and haven't stopped for it yet.
• Kevin just took said bone away from the dog, it's now bloody and chewy.  Sick.
• My laundry pile is completely out of control.
• I have 8 more days of school before break and am struggling right along with my kids to stay focused.  I just love Christmas time!

I think that's it for this week!  

Happy Hump Day, Friends -

Monday {Afternoon} Musings

Well, I had this written and thought I clicked publish, but turns out I didn't.  So now it's more like Monday AFTERNOON Musings.  Oops.

This weekend was SO insanely busy I feel like I didn't even have a break.  I really don't like weekends like that because it makes my week feel really long.  However, I'm thankful that this weekend was full of things I love and memories that will last forever.

As I posted about on Friday, my dance team went to State this weekend.  Here they are before loading the cars.

And at our dinner stop...Olive Garden.  YUM.  They look skinny and perfect - every single one of them - but I'm telling y'all, these ladies can EAT.  :)

We were thankful that we didn't have to get up in the middle of the night (AKA 4:00 AM for the past 3 years) to compete.  They were able to "sleep in" (7:30) and have a nice, relaxing breakfast.  Here they are before leaving the hotel, ready for Pom.

 The girls performed AMAZINGLY.  I have never seen them dance so well.  I was so proud of them.  They ended up placing 4th in their Pom category and 3rd in their Jazz category.

Saturday, our family went down to an adorable little Christmas in the Village where there was yummy treats, fires, live music, shop fronts, and shopping.  We always love celebrating Christmas with these little traditions.  It was FREEZING this year, but we enjoyed it anyway.

And on Sunday, I had my very first baby shower.  I sat through most of it in complete disbelief that this is really happening to me.  As I opened gift after gift, I fought back tears at how blessed I feel.

Under the punch bowl - adorable!

The hostesses with the mostestes - and my two favorite women on the planet.  I love them so much.

Yep, that's alot of gifts for Baby Girl.  The big white thing?  Her crib mattress.  :)  I have to write this so I don't forget, the big pink bag on the far left of this picture says "Tickled Pink" - but Maicey kept telling people it said "TiNkled Pink" - that kid cracks me up!  :)

This is one of our very talented dancers, who doubles as a very talented baker/cake decorator.  She MADE this beautiful cake - it was SO adorable...themed after the Very Hungry Caterpiller.

Shout out to this beauty for stepping in as part pack mule and helping me haul all of the goods home and up the steps in the ridiculous Iowa weather Mother Nature blessed us with yesterday.  I don't know what I would've done without her!

Here we are.  Just a few new items for Kamdyn.

How adorable are these?!

I couldn't hold back tears when I opened this.  How absolutely, positively perfect is this?!  I cannot wait to put her picture in there.  And it's the perfect colors of her nursery.

And here's the same corner I posted about here - it's taking over the room.  Please Christmas, be over with soon so I can begin finding real places for all these new adorable things.

We only have 2 more weeks of school before break, so I'm going to vow to enjoy time with my students and try to spend time each day living in the moment and not wishing away time.  {It's ironic I'm writing that sentence directly after I wrote the caption to the picture directly above...oops.  I said TRY}

Happy Week, Friends!

Dear Platinum,

{The dance team I coach is competing at the State Competition today, so I'm just writing my heart to them}

Dear Platinum Beauties -

Today is it.  The single day we have had our sights on since April.  This year our goal was simple, leave State with no regrets.  Whether we win or lose today - I think we've accomplished that goal.  I believe we will be able to look back on the past 8 months and say every single one of us has done everything we could do to prepare for this day.

This season has been full of really amazing moments

And some really hilarious moments

Lots of moments when lots of people were watching you

And I love being your coach during all of those times.  But the times when I am most proud to be your coach are the times like in this picture

The times when nobody is watching you.  The times you're sweating in the studio, or busting your butts in the weight room, or watching videos and critiquing them late at night or early in the morning.  Those are the moments that make me the most proud of you because those are the moments that make all the big moments when lots of people are watching even more sweet.

When you look back on this season (and more importantly, your time on Platinum in general), I hope you remember all of these moments.  Not just the really big ones, but the little day-to-day ones where your relationships with each other grow, or where you become a better dancer, or more importantly where you become a better person.

More than all of that, I hope you always look back on your time with this program and know that I could not possibly love you more.  You are so much more to me than dancers I coach.  I have known many of you since long before you were in high school.  The relationship I have with each of you is so far past the relationship most coaches have with their athletes.  You were among the first to know about Kamdyn - even before some of our family.  :)

You make me laugh when I'm having a horrible day, you make me smile when you get something you've been working on forever, and you make me proud of the young women you've become.  I tell you all the time how honored I am to be your coach - but I'm going to tell you again.  The simple fact that I get to be a part of such an incredible part of your high school career is something I cannot possibly say enough thanks for.  I am honored to be your coach, but more than that, I am honored to be your mentor, listening ear, second mom, and friend.  I hope you never forget that your biggest cheerleader is me.

I believe in you always -

20 Weeks - HALFWAY!

Here is the 20 week BUMPdate: 12/4/13 -

And the side-by-side from last week:

I wonder if looking at these pictures each week will ever become less fascinating to me?  I literally cannot believe that this amazing woman has a child inside of her that she is going to give to Kevin & I to keep forever.  Simply amazing.

Kamdyn is about the size of a banana this week:

She is about 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, or about 10 inches from head to heel.  Beginning at 20 weeks, the length measurement will be from head to heel.  Before 20 weeks, the measurements are from head to bottom because their limbs are all curled up and hard to measure.  Most of the rest of her development this week is disgusting and has to do with either swallowing her own urine or her bowls making meconium (dark by product of digestion) which she is kindly going to save for her first diaper.  Excellent.

Anyway, in other news - we are officially at our halfway point!  The iconic downhill slide that every other mother has been telling me about for the past 20 weeks.  Everyone says time is about to begin flying.  I'm not sad about that.  :)

I hope you're all having a wonderful week -

So What Wednesday

This week I'm saying SO WHAT if:

• I still don't have gifts wrapped and under my tree - even though I got my stuff organized over the weekend.
• There are 3 alarms set {2 on my phone and 1 on my alarm clock} and I still can't really stand waking up.
• I'm kind of stalking my baby registries because I like to add little things each day.  :)
• Cee Lo Green cracks me up.  The ensembles he puts together are something else most days.
• Leaving for State tomorrow and haven't packed a single thing.
• I love the look of loose curls in hair, but am too lazy to do it myself.
• if I were rich, the first thing I would hire done is my hair every morning.  That's not a joke.
• The fact that there's only 2.5 weeks of school before break both excites me and terrifies me all at the same time.
• The adorable Merry Christmas sign on my front door was driving me insane because it was scraping the door every time we opened or shut the door - so I scotch taped it.
• The above bullet didn't work.  On to Plan B.
• I really want to buy Kamdyn a pair of baby Sperry's even though I know that's a ridiculous waste of money.  But they're so darn adorable I might have to do it anyway.  Or maybe I'll just ask my mom.  :)

That's it for this week.  Hop on over to see Shannon at Life After "I Dew" (link on my right sidebar) to tell her what you're saying SO WHAT to.

Happy Hump Day -

Operation: Kamdyn Takeover - Part 1

"Dad!  Seriously, Dad!  What on EARTH is going on in my room?!  Where did my kennel go?!"

  "What is all this baby stuff taking over this room?!"

  

"Seriously?  This is only the beginning?  Aw, come on!"

We spent a large part of our weekend cleaning, organizing, and rearranging.  My first baby shower is this weekend, so we figured we'd better make some room.  Our spare bedroom is currently housing our extra bed set {which I usually sleep in at some point every night because it's more comfy}, all of my clothes, and Riley's kennel.  This is the room we've decided to make into the nursery - so we have some rearranging to do.  We decided to start with moving Riley's kennel to the other bedroom - so she's SUPER confused.  Every time we tell her to go to her kennel, she goes to the wrong room.  Poor girl.  The big box in the pictures is the glider my awesome parents got me for Christmas - can't wait to put that sucker together.  :)  And the rest of the stuff piled on the box is the other various things we have accumulated since we found out Baby K was on the way.  

While I am soaking in the holiday season, a little part of me is excited for January because that's the month Kevin has agreed to let me begin working on the nursery for real!  {He told me starting in September was unreasonable - March is more his speed…so January it is.  We're good at compromising.}

Yes, Riley - there is a new chief in town.  Her name is Kamdyn and she is the new boss around here.  :)

Monday Morning Musings

This weekend was so perfect in every way.  Our Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We really tried to keep things low key - which was awesome.  To be honest, all 9 of us in my family aren't together in the same room very often - so we soaked it all up.

Friday we went to Dubuque to spend some time with Kevin's family - which we are all in the same house approximately once or twice per year, so that's always a fun time to catch up and spend some time together.

Saturday, my mom, Kim, Maicey and I enjoyed the new Disney movie Frozen.  If you haven't seen it - GO!  It is absolutely adorable.  I will own it once it comes out on DVD.  It's so cute!

This girl spent quite a bit of time during the movie on my lap because there were a few scary parts.  But, overall, she loved this movie!  By the way, I'm not sure she could be much cuter.  Seriously.

After the movie, Kevin and I had a very rare weekend day together without work or Kaitlyn.  While we missed Kaitlyn being here this weekend, it was really nice to spend time relaxing just the two of us.  We didn't really do anything exciting - just hung out.  We did some shopping, some Christmas decorating, some wrapping, and LOTS of cleaning.  There is nothing quite like coming home to a clean, picked up home.  It puts me in my happy place.  :)

On Sunday, after church, we put the finishing touches on our tree.

Pretty darn perfect.  I absolutely love it.

After a day of cleaning, we went out to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant.  We did quick work on these delicious fajitas.  Holy YUM.

Once we settled our bellies, we got some Starbucks and drove around to look at Christmas lights.  It's one of our most favorite things to do during the month of December - we love to pick out our favorite houses, dream about our future home, and just take it all in.

And this is how I spent the rest of my night last night - PERFECTION.

All in all, it was a perfect long weekend.  Now we go back to school for only THREE weeks until it's Holiday break!  I'm sure it will FLY by.  :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week -